Mike Henry: I feel like I give Cleveland a lot of integrity, especially with the new series. He’s not just "the Black Friend." He’s a much fuller, well-rounded character then was ever set on Family Guy. Nobody has had anything really bad to say about it, knock on wood.

Rich Appel (co-creator): I think there’s no reason people would know, but I think this is okay, too. We didn’t invent Cleveland and then decide who to cast in the roll. Mike created Cleveland in episode three of Family Guy (season one) in the writer’s room. He just started doing this voice and then the character kinda grew in large measure out of Mike’s performance of that character. So he kinda was Cleveland long before the show existed. So to me, that makes it a little different. There’s a tradition in animated shows, where you really can have the virtue of what people often aspire to, which is color-blind casting. You can have a grown woman playing Bart Simpson and Bobby Hill, and you have Hank Azaria as Apu. We have Kevin Michael Richardson, who is African American, obviously, and plays Cleveland, Jr., and he also plays Lester, one of the most redneck, potentially racist characters on our show.

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